1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and a method for grinding rubber tires to a particulate size to separate the rubber and non rubber constituents therefrom, permitting the recovery of the rubber.
2. Prior Art
The accumulation of old rubber tires is a serious environmental problem. Some of the tires can be bundled together to help make artificial reefs on seacoasts, but this does away with only a portion of the problem. Other ways to dispose of the old tires cause additional nuisances. The tires cannot be burned because that would cause air pollution. The tires are difficult to "dump" because of the bulk of their carcasses, and they have a high resistance to degradation, which means they would remain intact for many years.
The rubber, however, from these old tires may be reuseable for various products; it may be used as a filler and mixed with asphalt, or it may be reclaimed and put back into use as a rubber product. Reclaimation of the old tires of the prior art have usually been initially treated by hand debeading, or by a hand operated machine, the debeaded tires having thereupon been cut into smaller pieces, and the tire pieces ground in different operational stages. The rubber is then separated from any cord in the tire pieces by sifting, utilizing wide arrangements, or by screening. Recent examples of prior art include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,923,256 and 3,966,125. Each of the prior art patents rely on complicated arrangements utilizing screening and grinding.